I love the flowers and the colors and I intend on making a similar throw for myself, but I thought that I would do a trial run before jumping into anything that time consuming. So I started with a scarf. I made the flowers and crocheted them into a grid. It was a bit challenging because the grid was freeform and it kept me guessing the whole time but I love how it turned out and can't wait to make another one.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

.....of the pot pies that I made last night on all of my social networks and had everyone drooling. Many asked me for the recipe so I will share the recipe with you and the changes that I made to it.

Last night I actually had something else planned for dinner but I had half of a rotisserie chicken left over from the enchiladas I made the night before.... I didn't want the chicken to go to waste but I also didn't want to buy anything extra to make a separate meal and I instantly thought of a pot pie and figured I had everything on hand. I don't have a recipe, so I turned to Pinterest with no luck... then I went to the Food Network and found this recipe by The Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten. What I liked most about this recipe is that it didn't call for a bottom crust... I'm not a fan of the bottom crust in pot pies, it never gets done all the way and is always soggy. Plus this is WAY easier.

I didn't use the crust that was suggested in the pot pie recipe, pie crust (for me) can be delicate to make and I have perfected this recipe from Betty Crocker so that it works every time for me. I sub in cold butter instead of shortening so that I can use it immediately and not have to refrigerate it. For the pot pies, I made the double pie crust recipe (see Step 3).

With the leftover chicken, I made my own chicken stock. To explain it simply, I remove all of the usable meat, cover the carcass with water in a stock pot fitted with a strainer and boil for 1-1.5 hours. I remove the strainer and carcass and simmer for 1-1.5 hours to thicken and condense the flavor. For this recipe I also added 2 chicken bullion cubes while simmering. (I used 5c. for the pot pies and had over 5c. leftover that divide between 2 containers and froze for future use).

Since I used a cooked chicken, I skipped the 1st part of the recipe that tells you how to cook the chicken. Another change I made was with the carrots, I figured the purpose of the blanching process was to make the carrots "al dente" but frankly I like my carrots super soft. So after I melted the butter, I added my onions and carrots at the same time. I also completely forgot to add the heavy cream, even though I had it. I thought the pot pie still turned out great without it, so that helps the calories and makes it better for those that are lactose intolerant!

I have these really nice soup bowls that I bought specifically for French Onion Soup that worked perfectly for this recipe. Once they were filled and I had the dough rolled out, I just eye-balled what I thought would be enough dough and cut sections out of the dough with a butter knife. After I added the crust to each bowl, I brushed with egg wash and instead of seasoning with salt and pepper, I freshly grated Parmesan cheese directly onto the crust. I would have preferred Gruyere, but I didn't have any on hand.

Baked in the oven for an hour and they turned out great. I was surprised that they were so tasty. I usually cook with lots of herbs and spices and this recipe didn't have much of that in there, so I had some fresh sage ready to add in case it needed a little something and surprisingly it didn't. I will also note that I personally don't like curly leaf parsley in soups and alike, so for this recipe I used flat leaf (that just happens to be growing in my garden).

On another note.... I have a few vegetarian friends that would like this recipe without the meat... If it were me, I would substitute cooked potatoes for the chicken and used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. I might also add both corn and peas for flavor.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

I can't believe that I am finally saying this but IT's DONE!!!!!! I was nearly done when I put it away indefinitely, 10 months ago. I had been so frustrated that it took 10 months to dig it back out and complete it! And I did!!! So... here is the original Antropologie Sweater that I was trying to replicate:

And here is how mine turned out:

There are definitely a few things that I would change if I had it to do over, but I like that it is homemade!

Aaaand in the interest of Anthropologie copies... I started a new one. This one is crochet and shouldn't take me nearly as long as the sweater, but we'll see :-)